For centuries, books have been used to store information. While books have proven reliable for storing information, such as text and pictures, for long periods of time, having the information available in an electronic format may be more useful for certain applications. Since information contained in some books may not be readily available from an electronic source, these books may need to be physically accessed in order to retrieve the information they possess. However, accessing these books, through opening them and turning the pages, may damage the books. Damage to books through actions such as opening the books, closing the books, and turning pages of the books, may be especially pronounced for old books and books with a large number of pages (e.g., books with a thick binding).
FIG. 1 illustrates a book 100 opened on a horizontal surface 120. When book 100 is opened on horizontal surface 120, a front cover 130 and a back cover 140 of book 100 may rest on horizontal surface 120. Opening book 100 such that front cover 130 and back cover 140 rest on horizontal surface 120 may be referred to as opening book 100 to 180°. Having book 100 in such a position may place a significant amount of stress on bookbinding 150 (also referred to as the book's binding). If book 100 is old and/or contains a large number of pages, the stress placed on bookbinding 150 by opening book 100 to 180° may be sufficient to permanently damage book 100.
Besides potentially damaging the book, opening the book to 180° may be prohibited by the book's owner. For example, some archives and libraries may not permit rare, old, fragile, and/or special collection books to be opened to such a position due to the risk of damage to the bookbinding. However, if a book is not opened to a wide angle, such as 180°, it may be difficult to view all of the information contained on each page. For example, text and/or pictures printed close to the book's gutter 160, that is, the space between the printed area of each page and where the pages are attached with bookbinding 150, may be difficult to view if the book is only opened to a small angle, such as 90° or 45°.